Corinthian-Casuals 0 - 0 Leatherhead
Pitching In Isthmian League Premier Division
Saturday 24th October 2020
Attendance: 600
Report and Photos: Stuart Tree (full set of photos here)
Corinthian-Casuals Manager James Bracken described the stalemate against Leatherhead as ‘the worst game of football he’s been involved in’ as neither side could break each other down in blustery conditions.
The Casuals supremo was not happy with just a point against a side who in recent times, had been on the wrong end of results at King George’s.
Leatherhead had started with a flurry of attacks with the wind behind their backs. Balls were pumped up to makeshift centre-forward Jerry Nnamani, usually found at centre-back in an unusual approach to the game.
Casuals game plan had to change early on too when Kevant Serbony took a hard tackle in the middle of the park and had to be stretchered off. Neither side created much and Casuals continued their first half goal drought this season. Youssef Bamba and Jerson Dos Santos were the two closest to ending that, but both only having half-chances to do anything with.
The second period livened up in places with both sides having mini-spells. Matt O’Donoghue found himself bearing down on goal and only Zaki Oualah’s legs prevented the full back from scoring. Likewise, at the other end, Danny Bracken was forced into a sharp save when a swirling shot from Joe Leslie had to be turned over. Oualah was forced into another good stop when Ben Cheklit almost reproduced his 20 yard curler against Dulwich. Coskun Ekim followed up with a sharp shot just wide of the mark.
But the game won’t live long in the memory and a real shame considering it was played in front of a sell-out 600 crowd. As James Bracken says “we’re in the entertainment business” and for large periods of this affair, it wasn’t entertaining.
“I’m more than angry,” said James Bracken after the final whistle. “I’m also disappointed for everyone who’s come along intending to watch a game of football. I like people to come along have a great day and watch a good match. We’re in the entertainment business especially in a world where there isn’t a lot to cheer about at the moment. For some, it the highlight of their week. They look forward to Saturdays down at Casuals where they can meet up with their pals, and it’s a great place to be.
“But today, between Leatherhead’s lack of ambition and our inability to follow the most basic of instructions led to one of the worst games of football I’ve been involved in. Had we even scored near the end, I wouldn’t have even celebrated, just because as a spectacle, it was terrible.
“It wasn’t all our own doing. I’m not openly criticising Leatherhead. They came here for a point and they got that, so good luck to them. It’s odd to show no ambition like that though. We didn’t get off the bottom of the league for months last season. But they’ve come here, celebrating a point against us. I don’t know if I take that as a compliment. Looking at recent results for us, maybe teams are giving us a bit of respect. Maybe that’s been earned over the last month or so.
“As a spectacle, the game lacked quality and nous. The most frustrating element was if they’d just done what I’d asked them to do, we’d have won the game. Usually, they follow my instructions to the letter, but today, they haven’t. And we’ve passed up an opportunity for three points.
“Don’t get me wrong. We’ve had a couple of great chances to win the game. Their keeper has made a couple of great saves. But there was not enough consistency from us. Not enough building pressure. Some of the decision making I couldn’t get my head around. For example, we’re playing short corners when we know they’ve let in two from corners and yet we’re not putting balls in. They’re not in our repertoire, they’re not what we’ve worked on. I don’t know what they’re playing at. We talked about stretching them wide but again, we’ve not done that either. We wonder why we can’t create more chances? That’s because individuals haven’t listened.
“For the last twenty minutes, I’m just f*****g watching a bunch of Roy of the Rovers who want to take five hundred touches and dribble until they get tackled. It’s not how we do things here.
“It’s not how we play. I don’t care for the individual, I care for the group. They need to realise sharpish that there’s one way you’ll go if you cannot understand that.
“So I’ve been in a bad mood since the loss on Tuesday. Worse than bad. I’m unhappy. I’m an unhappy person. I don’t want to be unhappy. That’s because we lost in a game where we shouldn’t have lost. I’ve turned up here, still angry and upset about Tuesday. I haven’t put it behind me. We have an opportunity today to put it right and we don’t. Now I’m going home angry again. The players need to be like that too. Because I guarantee if they were, we’d have won that game today.”
Pitching In Isthmian League Premier Division
Saturday 24th October 2020
Attendance: 600
Report and Photos: Stuart Tree (full set of photos here)
Corinthian-Casuals Manager James Bracken described the stalemate against Leatherhead as ‘the worst game of football he’s been involved in’ as neither side could break each other down in blustery conditions.
The Casuals supremo was not happy with just a point against a side who in recent times, had been on the wrong end of results at King George’s.
Leatherhead had started with a flurry of attacks with the wind behind their backs. Balls were pumped up to makeshift centre-forward Jerry Nnamani, usually found at centre-back in an unusual approach to the game.
Casuals game plan had to change early on too when Kevant Serbony took a hard tackle in the middle of the park and had to be stretchered off. Neither side created much and Casuals continued their first half goal drought this season. Youssef Bamba and Jerson Dos Santos were the two closest to ending that, but both only having half-chances to do anything with.
The second period livened up in places with both sides having mini-spells. Matt O’Donoghue found himself bearing down on goal and only Zaki Oualah’s legs prevented the full back from scoring. Likewise, at the other end, Danny Bracken was forced into a sharp save when a swirling shot from Joe Leslie had to be turned over. Oualah was forced into another good stop when Ben Cheklit almost reproduced his 20 yard curler against Dulwich. Coskun Ekim followed up with a sharp shot just wide of the mark.
But the game won’t live long in the memory and a real shame considering it was played in front of a sell-out 600 crowd. As James Bracken says “we’re in the entertainment business” and for large periods of this affair, it wasn’t entertaining.
“I’m more than angry,” said James Bracken after the final whistle. “I’m also disappointed for everyone who’s come along intending to watch a game of football. I like people to come along have a great day and watch a good match. We’re in the entertainment business especially in a world where there isn’t a lot to cheer about at the moment. For some, it the highlight of their week. They look forward to Saturdays down at Casuals where they can meet up with their pals, and it’s a great place to be.
“But today, between Leatherhead’s lack of ambition and our inability to follow the most basic of instructions led to one of the worst games of football I’ve been involved in. Had we even scored near the end, I wouldn’t have even celebrated, just because as a spectacle, it was terrible.
“It wasn’t all our own doing. I’m not openly criticising Leatherhead. They came here for a point and they got that, so good luck to them. It’s odd to show no ambition like that though. We didn’t get off the bottom of the league for months last season. But they’ve come here, celebrating a point against us. I don’t know if I take that as a compliment. Looking at recent results for us, maybe teams are giving us a bit of respect. Maybe that’s been earned over the last month or so.
“As a spectacle, the game lacked quality and nous. The most frustrating element was if they’d just done what I’d asked them to do, we’d have won the game. Usually, they follow my instructions to the letter, but today, they haven’t. And we’ve passed up an opportunity for three points.
“Don’t get me wrong. We’ve had a couple of great chances to win the game. Their keeper has made a couple of great saves. But there was not enough consistency from us. Not enough building pressure. Some of the decision making I couldn’t get my head around. For example, we’re playing short corners when we know they’ve let in two from corners and yet we’re not putting balls in. They’re not in our repertoire, they’re not what we’ve worked on. I don’t know what they’re playing at. We talked about stretching them wide but again, we’ve not done that either. We wonder why we can’t create more chances? That’s because individuals haven’t listened.
“For the last twenty minutes, I’m just f*****g watching a bunch of Roy of the Rovers who want to take five hundred touches and dribble until they get tackled. It’s not how we do things here.
“It’s not how we play. I don’t care for the individual, I care for the group. They need to realise sharpish that there’s one way you’ll go if you cannot understand that.
“So I’ve been in a bad mood since the loss on Tuesday. Worse than bad. I’m unhappy. I’m an unhappy person. I don’t want to be unhappy. That’s because we lost in a game where we shouldn’t have lost. I’ve turned up here, still angry and upset about Tuesday. I haven’t put it behind me. We have an opportunity today to put it right and we don’t. Now I’m going home angry again. The players need to be like that too. Because I guarantee if they were, we’d have won that game today.”
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